Cord-Cutting Is Accelerating-The total number of households that don't subscribe to pay-TV by the end of 2015 will be about 17% of U.S. households.-Analyst eMarketer estimates 23% US hh w/o trad. TV by 2019- WSJ says 20.8 mm by end of this year 17%- Logan Hill WSJ interview on future of TV- President of AMC Josh Sapan “Before the current generation, the term “TV show” meant something a little dumb. And so you can say there are too many shows relative to the economics of the old system, but with the new system, I would not say there are too many shows.- Maker Studios President Ynon Kreiz “No matter what device you use, the big advantage is the freedom to make those choices. I see a golden age of television that’s less about apps or channels, and more about the when and where.”- Lachlan Murdoch, Executive chariman 21st Century Fox “In a world of limitless choice, mediocrity is death”- Max Cohen, head of Mobile at Oculus Rift “ Down the line, we’ll get full-length VR movies, where you’re the star and interact with all the characters. We’ll get a 360-degree camera at the end of the piano at a Billy Joel concert, where it feels like he’s singing to you. “

BBC iPlayer comes to the Apple TV- Apple TV cornucopia of facts- more than 2,000 apps in Apple TV app store- About half apps are games (appfigures tracking)- Mostdownloaded are entertainment 38 of top 50 (games, news sports)- 39% are paid, majority $2.99 or less- Apple’s app of the year for TV HBO Now (2nd: Rayman Adventures)- Siri now supports music- Eddy Cue says app with Siri support coming 1H 2016- BBC iPLayer now on Apple TV- Apple TV Service- Les Moonves says “pressed the hold button” but “will happen” eventually because "people will not be spending money on channels they don’t want to watch."- Peter Kafka, ReCode says it’s a fight over bundles

Front Lines

Verizon Fios will let you stream from your DVR when you’re out of the house- Verizon Fios TV service customers can now stream “Nearly all of their DVR-recorded shows” anywhere with an Internet connection. So nearly as good as setting up a slingbox. Verizon likes things that are almost something. Like FiOS TV’s director Maitreyi Krishnaswamy saying on a TV of Tomorrow conference panel that she has “pretty much cut the cord.” She was talking up Verizon's Go90 service.

AT&T to Launch Mobile Entertainment Service, CEO Says- AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson told an investor conference last week that AT&T is planning to launch its own mobile entertainment service. He also said that in January AT&T will launch a ”premium content" package that will offer "mobile stacked content together with a really robust wireless asset." He also said they would offer “proprietary content” through DirecTV or mobile and possibly in cooperation with joint venture Otter Media which has a majority stake in Fullscreen. DIGITAL!

Yahoo Launches A Video Guide App For Cord Cutters- Yahoo wanted cord cutters so bad it paid for a whole season of Community.It’s latest effort to win your love is a new app called Yahoo Video Guide for iOS and Android. You look for shows to watch and it will find them among services you have installed, like HBO, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, and even launch the apps for you.

On the Lookout:Interstellar is now available to Hulu and Amazon Prime subscribers

Dispatches from the Front

Dear Cord Killers,

My email should be reaching you in time for the last episode before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I’m sure that you’ll be going to see it on release day, and so I need to ask you for a solemn promise: PLEASE. DO. NOT. SPOIL.

Personally, I’m waiting until I am back home with my family, so I won’t be seeing Star Wars until around Christmas. I’m aware that other places and people will be throwing spoilers left and right, but I’d like you to set the standard: Please keep spoilers to Spoilerin’ Time, at least for the first two weeks.

Please (and I’m looking at you, Brian) try to avoid dropping little tidbits here and there as you skirt around important plot points. If you liked it, or you hated it, I’m fine with that, and by all means say so, but I don’t need to know why right now.

Or, if you don’t think you’ll be able to contain yourself, please tell me now, and I’ll hold off on watching Cord Killers until the new year.

See you on the other side!

-Karl

Hey Brian & Tom,

With the release of The Force Awakens just around the corner, I thought I’d share my view on the craziness surrounding the premier of this movie.

I’m 23, I’m a geek, and I love sci-fi and fantasy stuff. That being said, I’ve never been in to Star Wars. My parents where never really in to it, and when the prequels came out, I was still a bit too young to really notice or care on my own. I actually hadn’t even seen a Star Wars movie the whole way through until 2013, when I decided I’d finally sit down and watch all the movies.

I hate to say it, but I was really underwhelmed. I’d had basically everything spoiled from me from the ridiculous number of references in pop culture, and that certainly contributed to my indifference, but besides just that, it seemed like any other cheesy 70’s sci-fi movie. I wanted to love Star Wars as much as I see everyone else loving it, but I couldn’t understand the hype surrounding this franchise.

So I thought about it for a while, talked to some of my friends about it, and I think I understand why it seems like so many people love it and why I personally can’t get in to it: Nostalgia. Everyone 30+ seems to LOVE everything Star Wars, but when I speak to people around my age about it, they respond with the same passive interest as me. No one hates it, but they don’t love it either.

I think a lot of the hype surrounding Star Wars comes from the fact that people grew up with it, and as children we’re much more forgiving and think things are much cooler. My generation actually has something similar to this: Harry Potter. It comes up in like 90% of conversations we have, we get super hyped for anything new in the series, and we look back on it with fond memories. My friends and I are even trying to plan a trip to Harry Potter World in Universal Studios. On the other hand, I don’t think Star Wars has come up more than a handful of times in conversation, even with the leadup to Episode VII.

It’s been an odd experience watching the hype build for The Force Awakens. It seems like 50% of the news stories are related to it in some way, podcasts are dedicated to it, no one seems to be able to stop talking about it. I’m not complaining, and I’m not asking you guys to stop, I just think it’s interesting from an outsiders perspective.

Of course I will go see the movie when it comes out, and I do hope I like it enough to start getting in to this series a bit more. Just thought I’d share. """

- Jacob

How can we make an argument for ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX to stream their programing on demand? Now we record their shows and blow by the commercial with the 30 second forward button. Streaming on demand we are forced to watch the commercials. Try to fast forward and they make you watch another commercial. Would that not be a good selling point to their clients? Best Regards,

- Stan

If NBC wants me to fork over $4 a month for their streaming comedy service Hoo-Ha* there is only one way for them to make it happen. Stream all of David Letterman's Late Night and his morning show and I will gladly subscribe.

* Hoo-Ha may not be the name for their service but it should be.

- Mark

Just wanted to share a thought on YouTube Red after hearing you talk about the value of it. I have to admit, I was definitely one of the people that saw no reason why I would ever pay for YouTube Red (since YouTube is free after-all) but after using it, unbeknownst to me, since the day it came out I don't think I will want to go back to the days of free YouTube with ads.

Google/YouTube made the smart move of including this as part of the Google Play All Access membership. I signed up for a great music service and ended up with a great ad free video service as well. I was also pleasantly surprised at how seamlessly it all appeared on my devices. Roku, XboxOne, and obviously my phone all gave me the YouTube Red logo at the top of the app on day one.

The way they did this reminds me of when I had my 4 disc a month Netflix account in college that then introduced streaming, and eventually lead to my streaming only account. Or my Amazon Prime account that I started for the shipping that also lead to yet another streaming account I use on most of my devices.

Have you being using Red? Thoughts?

Cheers!

- Byron

Nile Says: I think Brian asked about this, but it might have been someone else on one of Tom's other shows. I never speed up the playback of a podcast I'm intimately familiar with, because the change in voices messes with my head. HOWEVER, when I start listening to a new podcast, I've been in the habit of playing it at around 1.25x so I get the efficiency, and my mind thinks the hosts voices sound that from the very start. Thanks for the show guys!